West Dundee weekend meat raffle often boon for pantry
Volunteers of the FISH Food Pantry in Carpentersville are counting on the generosity of Dundee Township residents to help them provide holiday dinners for hundreds of families.
This year has been unusually demanding on them with an average of 430 families asking for food they cannot afford.
“Four hundred and thirty families equates to about 2,000 people when you consider the size of a family,” said FISH volunteer George Rustemeyer. “We are at the point now where we’re only giving turkeys to families that have at least five members. Everybody else will get ham.”
And if the hams show up from the Northern Illinois Food Bank, that will be fine.
Fortunately, the donated frozen turkeys are showing up, and more are expected from residents who win cases of them at the annual West Dundee Firefighters Association raffle scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 18-19.
During the raffle, hundreds of people buy chances to win cases of turkeys, slabs of bacon and hams. Four turkeys usually make up a case. Winners have been known to take one or two for themselves and donate the rest to FISH.
“FISH receives a lot of turkeys and hams, from the people who come to our raffle,” said West Dundee Fire Lt. Alan Widmayer. “I know every year, people share their winnings and it helps FISH out tremendously.”
The raffle is held at the West Dundee VFW post, along First Street.
The generosity will be appreciated more this year than last because families will pay $5.73 more when buying their Thanksgiving feasts. The American Farm Bureau Federation estimated a complete dinner for a family of 10 will cost $49.20.
A good portion of that amount will be for the frozen turkey, which also will cost more. A 16-pound turkey is expected to cost $21.50. Calculate in the higher cost to transport the birds to stores because of more expenses fuel prices along with increases due to higher demand, and turkeys for many underpaid or out-of-work breadwinners are too expensive.
“The food drives and donations from the turkey raffles keep us going during the holidays,” Rustemeyer said.
The late fall and winter months have traditionally been busier for FISH volunteers than other times of the year because many residents who have seasonal jobs have been laid off. This year, though, many residents in Dundee Township that FISH serves are out of work because of the bad economy.
The pantry is at the Meadowdale Shopping Center, along Route 25. It is open 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
For details, call (847) 428-4357.